New this week: theatre at the Fox, the Black Rep, Webster Conservatory, West End Players Guild, and cabaret at the Blue Strawberry.
New This Week:
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The Band's Visit
Photo by Matthew Murphy |
The Fabulous Fox Theatre presents the musical
The Band's Visit running through March 8. "In this joyously offbeat story, set in a town that's way off the beaten path, a band of musicians arrive lost, out of the blue. Under the spell of the desert sky, and with beautiful music perfuming the air, the band brings the town to life in unexpected and tantalizing ways. Even the briefest visit can stay with you forever." The Fabulous Fox Theatre in on N. Grand in Grand Center. For more information:
fabulousfox.com.
My take: In the era of the jukebox musical, the amusement park musical, the reverse revival musical rewrite , and similar extravaganzas, one occasionally encounters an intimate, small-cast show that stands out like a tiny diamond in a pile of costume jewelry. Reviews,
including my own, have been uniformly positive. This is an intimate show that nevertheless fills the huge Fox with heart and warmth.
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| Marissa Mulder |
The Blue Strawberry presents
Marissa Mulder in
The John Lennon and Paul McCartney Songbooks on Saturday, February 29, at 8 pm. "Join extravagantly-praised singer Marissa Mulder as she dives into the songbook of two of the most prolific and beloved songwriting duos of all time, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Backed by savant Jon Weber on piano, you will hear each song as you never have before." The Blue Strawberry is at 364 N. Boyle in the Central West End. For more information:
www.bluestrawberrystl.com.
My take: When I last saw Ms. Mulder here she was presenting her
compelling Tom Waits tribute at the Gaslight Theatre. Now she's just down the block at the Blue Strawberry, and if her Lennon and McCartney show is anything like that one, it will be well worth seeing. Her stage presence and sense of focus are flawless and, let's fact it, she's working with some pretty good material here to begin with.
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| Picnic |
Webster University's Conservatory of Theatre Arts presents William Inge's
Picnic Saturday at 2 and 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 2 pm February 29 and March 1. "The play takes place on Labor Day weekend in the joint backyards of two widows. One house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two daughters, Madge and Millie, and a schoolteacher boarder. The other house belongs to Helen Potts, who lives with her elderly and invalid mother. Into this female atmosphere comes a young man named Hal Carter, whose animal vitality seriously upsets the entire group." Performances take place in the Stage III Auditorium on the Webster University campus. For more information,
www.webster.edun or call 314-968-7128.
My take: The Webster Conservatory consistently produces some of the best student theatre you will ever see, and this appears to be no exception to that rule. "Doug Finlayson directs this lovely production," writes Steve Callahan
at KDHX, "and it’s another gem added to his long record of beautiful work. It’s done with such respect for the script—and for the time which is portrayed."
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The Roommate
Photo by John Lamb |
The West End Players Guild continues its 109th season with the St. Louis premiere of
The Roommate Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, February 29 and March 1. "Sharon lives alone in a big old house in Iowa City, IA. Her husband has left her; her grown son has moved to New York and rarely calls; and Sharon looks somewhat fearfully ahead to the decades to come. She has a lot of life left to live but no idea what to do with it, and she is really, really bored with her life to date. She decides that a roommate might at least help with the constant loneliness and she posts an ad. Enter Robyn. Robyn turns out to be just about everything Sharon isn't. Sharon is small-town Iowa; Robyn is the big, bad Bronx. Sharon's diet is Iowa health food - porkchops, baked beans, corn on the cob, all with lots of butter; Robyn is a vegan (and has to explain to Sharon was a "vegan" is). Sharon is white wine; Robyn is recreational drugs, some of which she grows herself. Sharon is straight; Robyn is…. flexible. Sharon needs a new life; Robyn needs a place to hide." Performances take place at the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 North Union at Enright in the Central West End. For more information, call 314-367-0025 or visit
www.westendplayers.org.
My take: I'll preface this by disclosing that I'm on the board of West End and did the sound design for this show. That said, I think it's clear, based on what I saw at last night's performance, that director Sean Belt's direction and the performances of cast members Jane Abling and Julie George-Carlson are all spot on. "The script is witty and insightful," writes
Michele Kenyon, "and the relationship here is made all the more believable by the truly compelling performances of the two leads."
At KDHX, Tina Farmer praises the "strong, engaging performances by Abling and George-Carlson" in this "thoroughly entertaining show." The script,
as I noted when I saw the world premiere at the Humana Festival in 2015, it not without its issues, but it's still an entertaining piece with two very strong and well-developed characters for middle-aged women, and that's still a rare thing in theatre, I'm sorry to say.
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| Spell #7 |
The Black Rep presents Ntozake Shange's
Spell #7 running through March 8. "This striking choreopoem by the author of
For Colored Girls, Ntozake Shange, is set in a bar in St. Louis frequented by Black artists and musicians, actors, and performers. In a series of dreamlike vignettes and poetic monologues, they commiserate about the difficulties they face as black artist. The piece is framed by the narrator, Lou, a magician who wants to use his magic to help the artist come to terms with their blackness and rejoice in their identities. " Performances take place at the Edison Theatre on the Washington University campus. For more information:
theblackrep.org.
My take: A St. Louis native who is best known for her "choreopoem"
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, a work that combines theatre, dance, music and poetry to produce a unique hybrid art form. Her Spell #7 is less well known but, as Calvin Wilson writes
at the Post-Dispatch, it nevertheless "conjures a mood of poetic enchantment." "Director Ron Himes and choreographer Heather Beal collaborate impressively," he notes, "coordinating words and movement with seeming effortlessness. And the performances are splendid, capturing the nuances of Shange’s avant-garde sensibility."
Held Over:
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Ghost
Photo by Jennifer A. Lin |
Metro Theatre Company presents
Ghost Sundas at 2 pm, March 1. "Metro Theater Company presents the rolling world premiere of a new play adapted by Idris Goodwin from Jason Reynolds's award-winning best-seller for young readers. Running is all that Castle Cranshaw, a.k.a. "Ghost," has ever known, but he runs for all the wrong reasons until he meets Coach, who sees something in him: raw talent. The story follows Castle as he tries to stay on track, literally and figuratively, harnessing his aptitude for speed on an elite local track team while battling the difficult realities of his past and present. Ghost also highlights the importance of allyship. As his teammates become friends and Coach stands in as a father figure, Castle finds a place where he belongs " The performances take place at The Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square in Grand Center. For more information:
metroplays.org.
My take: Metro has a long history of presenting children's theatre that can appeal to adults as well while still delivering powerful messages. Plus, the script is by Idris Goodwin, whose hip-hop play
How We Got On so impressed me at the Humana Festival in 2012.
At Ladue News, Mark Bretz calls this "enchanting, persuasive tale of a modern kid with contemporary problems."
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